Paul is carried away with his theme, and continues to eulogize the great faith of Abraham, which was confidence of such a degree as every believer ought to envy and strive to imitate. Because he was not weak in faith, when God made promise that his seed would be like the stars of heaven, he did not pause to reflect upon the natural likelihood of such an event. Of a certainty, he knew that he was of such a great age that his natural powers were failing; and, though men sometimes father children when they are quite old, an even stronger argument could have been found in the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Who ever heard of a woman who had lived nine decades giving birth to a child? The thing itself was impossible, according to nature. But Abraham believed God, simply because he knew he was not dealing with nature, but with God, to Whom nothing is impossible. Doubtless, much as we are, he would have been assailed by the temptations of Satan, who would have whispered to him that he must have been deluded, that God could not possibly make such a ridiculous promise; or, if He had, He had gone too far, and could not accomplish that which He had pledged.

But such carnal doubts Abraham did not tolerate, and therefore he did not stagger through unbelief. The God Who made the stars, he knew could multiply his seed like the stars. Therefore, he ignored natural realities, placed his confidence in God, and gave glory to the One Who had made him and called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was fully persuaded that this God of omnipotent power (did not God reveal Himself to him as El Shaddai, or God Almighty?) was fully able to perform what he had promised. This was the faith of Abraham, and it is a faith which all of his spiritual seed possesses to some degree.